Abbreviated perfume & fragrance reviews from one man's perspective

Sniffa New York!

Let me first say that I am a very deficient blogger…deficient in the fact that when I go to an event and meet the fantastic people in the industry I fail to record meetings, greetings and happenings through pictures. And I have a great new iPhone so there’s no excuse. So let me first apologize for the sparse use of original or borrowed pictures.

Twisted Lily

This past weekend was a perfumed whirlwind centered around the 2016 Sniffapalooza Spring Fling. Friday night kicked off the weekend event with an open house at Twisted Lily in Brooklyn. Let me first say that I was proud of the fact that the Hound and hub managed to take the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn during Friday night rush hour all by ourselves. This is big, even though I may be lax in taking pictures, I am not lax in ordering Uber. So the train took me off my princess perch. If you have never had the pleasure of visiting Twisted Lily, Eric and Stamatis’s store offers the best selection of niche perfumes on the east coast. Wide and varied, they have an incredible diverse and unique range of perfumes. Even if you haven’t been there, check out their website as you can still order their perfumes online. The open house was PACKED…but that made it all that much more fun. It was great to see old friends and to make new ones as well….two of which included the team behind Masque Milano, Alessandro Brun and Riccardo Tedeschi. We had a lovely chat where they introduced me to their latest release Romanza, a perfume inspired by Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray. It’s a narcissus based perfume that…well, the inspiration says a lot and I plan to complete a review so I’ll let you create your own picture right now. Additionally, they introduced me to their upcoming release L’Attesa, an incredibly beautiful iris perfume that restored my interested in the flower as a note. More to come on that as well. But they also have redesigned their bottles and I have to say that they are incredibly luxurious and wonderful weighted.

Saturday morning was kicked off with the invasion of the Sniffa group to Bergdorf Goodman. I was introduced to a new line I hadn’t heard of before, The Fragrance Kitchen. This Kuwait based perfume house has been around since 2005, but is new to the US market. They had a wide range of perfumes, but found my favorite to be “The Man from Impanema,” a really nice fresh citrus floral with a happy disposition. How can you not love that name??! I also managed to be seduced by Ex Nihilo’s Sweet Morphine, a vibrant pink floral perfume that spellbound me big time. But of course, I didn’t purchase either of those, but instead was enabled by dear sweet Daisy as we both ended up purchasing a 3 ml bottle of Oud Elixir Precieux from Christian Dior. This perfumed oil elixir is out of this world and one of those perfumes where people around me were wondering where the intoxicating fragrance was coming from as it just seems to not necessarily radiate from the skin, but from the atmosphere. Riccardo Tedeschi from Masque was smelling it as we were wrapping up the purchase and he said it was the most magnificent thing he had smelled that day. I have to admit, it’s like owning a little jewel. And it’s not a heavy oud, but more of a smooth and smoky honeyed intoxicant.

I must have these Diors!

The Sniffa lunch revolved around various speakers…but one highlight was a presentation from Barbara Herman introducing her newly released line of Eris Parfums. Barbara, an aficionado on vintage and classic perfumes and author of “Scent and Subversion” has taken this next step into the realm of creation with a trio of classic, yet modern-inspired animalic perfumes in collaboration with perfumer Antoine Lie and co-founder and business partner, the talented Jacinta Bunt. Probably my favorite from the line is Night Flower…and of course, that’s only a teaser as you’ll soon hear more about it!

Cecile, Mary and The Hound

Saturday night culminated in a wonderful small gathering with Puredistance, the perfume house that’s dear to my heart. Their creations, including my beloved White, are all incredible and this gathering was centered around the introduction to the newest member of their collection, Sheiduna. A stunner that is a departure from the rest of the line, I was told that with this creation they were looking to bridge the elegance of Europe with the sensual and exciting nature of the Orient. Those in attendance had the chance to experience Sheiduna and it was incredible how different it developed on each wearer. All I can say is that this oriental has a beautiful drydown that must be experienced. I also finally had a chance to meet the ever gracious Mary Gooding, the Puredistance brand ambassador, as well as have a chat with Sheiduna’s perfumer, the amzaing Cecile Zarokian. Sheiduna is set to be released some time later in 2016.

Sunday was a day spent with friends so I didn’t get a chance to experience day 2 of the Sniffapalooza, but that’s OK…I managed to pack in a sensory overload in a day and a half.

Next time however, I PROMISE to take pictures. Well…I guess I should never promise should I.

Thanks to Daisy, Ari, Hajusuuri, Mary, Carlos, Michelyn and the many others for making this such a special weekend.

I’m envious. Sounds like you had so much fun. Wish we had such big events around here where I live.
Cecile and Mary ard adorable. And how lucky you got to try Sheiduna. Mary didn’t let me to smell it during Esxence. She didn’t even tell who is a perfumer… Looking forward to smelling it

Hey….you got to go to Esxence and Pitti… I would kill to go to those. But this was fun. And Sheiduna is a real departure for the line. I think you’ll like it…hopefully you’ll get a chance to sniff it soon.

HI Steve! I love it that I have been to Twisted Lily and met so many of the people you mention. Totally cool bunch. I always promise Portia to take pictures but never do. Somehow it takes away from the total enjoyment of an event. Talking to someone and then whipping out a camera ……. Must look into your Dior love. And you did more than me by getting to Twisted Lily from Manhattan alone. I got Daisy to pick me up and show me the way!!! Wonderful write up, enjoyed every word. Big hugs. xxxxx

Ah, what a fun time Steve! I’m particularly intrigued about the narcissus scent, if only because The Picture of Dorian Gray is way way up there (maybe tied for #1) in my all time favorite books list. I’ve also been curious about Sweet Morphine (the name is great!) and the Oud you walked away with sounds like it’s phenomenal! I’m slowly coming around to oud (looooving Oud Ispahan, which I guess is really a polarizing one??), and now *I* want to experience the amazing atmosphere that you projected around you! 🙂 Sounds like this was so much fun, thanks for sharing your trip with us!

You need to go sometime Sun Mi. Hmmmm, I think you might really go for the opening of Romanza…but the dry down is rather funky. I should be getting a sample, I’ll pass it along next time we have our sniffing session 🙂

Great report, Steve – even if you haven’t included enough pictures ;-P I keep promising myself that I’ll join you there one day but for now I enjoy it through your posts 🙂

You’ve bought that 3 ml Dior bottle!!! I remember that when they first planned to release it, reading the size and the price we thought it was a typo. But I’m glad that something moved you enough to affect your wallet: after all, looking at our current collections, how many mls more do we all need?

Speaking of mls, I want to ask your opinion: are those new Masque’s bottles that much nicer their old ones? I’m asking because I cannot decide if I should go for the old (big) bottle of Tango or wait until it comes out in the new format. I realize that per ml the price of the new bottle will be much higher but since 1) I do not really need even 30 ml of any perfume, leave alone 100 ml and 2) I do not host splits and do not sell decants, I’m not sure I need to spend more money for more juice instead of spending less money on less amount, especially if the smaller bottle is actually much nicer?

My dear U – trust me, the 3 ml will last a lifetime. It has a wand applicator and it takes just a small drop to fill the room with fragrance. I learned quickly that it doesn’t take much for it to turn into a monster powerhouse. AS for the Masque bottle…the new bottle is WAYYYYY much nicer than the old bottle. I love a great bottle, the new design is a great bottle. I can’t answer for you if you should wait for the new bottle or not, but in my book it’s a great bottle. How’s that for a non-committal answer?

Daisy is just the biggest enabler out there. Without question. She has led me down the path of temptation more than once. And I must admit I just love her for it.
I am awful about pictures too. I want to have an experience and remember the event and not be whipping out the camera all the time. I suppose the photos are helpful for blogging but I’d rather know you were having too much fun to stop and take a picture.
I’m impressed that you took the train and got there without any issues. I’m not sure I could pull that off. I doubt I could. Lord only knows where I’d end up.
I wish I had been there but it wasn’t in the cards this time. On the bright side, Stanley got his shot and I think we’re heading in the right direction with his meds. I hope.

I’m glad to hear that things are moving in the right direction. Finger’s crossed. As for the train, New Yorkers are a nice bunch and friendly. We had to ask which platform to go to and were helped without issue. Rush hour at Grand Central can be confusing. As for Daisy…there is something about that glint in her eye that can get you to do anything. However, I have to admit that she bought first because of my enabling! We really missed you!

Enabling is fun. Just imagine if we had unlimited funds…I guess, then it would take some of the magic out of it though. The hub had a great time. He was surprised and delighted how genuinely nice everybody in the community was. Of course, we have known that for years!

Woohoo, great round-up, Steve but you’ll always be Houndy, Houndie. I was in your oud clOUD from the moment we left Bergdorfs to when the afternoon events ended. I had a great time and it was really nice meeting the husband, too!

I know! I love the pink… When I first dabbed it on I didn’t smell much but it’s a soft one. I had to slather on some more Sweet Morphine to get all the goodness. I need a spray bottle! Thanks again for a great review and for sharing your good times with us. One of these days I’m going to make it to a Sniffa.